//------------------------------// // Launch // Story: The Sun Rises, The Sun Never Sets // by BRBrony9 //------------------------------// "Fillies and Gentlecolts, please prepare for takeoff. Ensure your luggage is safely stowed in the overhead lockers or beneath your seats and familiarise yourselves with the emergency procedures for this aircraft. A copy of the safety guide is provided in the pocket in front of you, and a visual demonstration can be accessed from the videotainment screens as well." Twilight tightened her safety straps. She enjoyed travelling very much, even by spaceplane, but the takeoff was always unnerving for her. Even more so than normal today, for she was on a very important trip to the Hoofstonian Scientific Complex, one of the premiere seats of learning in the land. A trip there was part of her exchange programme, for if she was to qualify as a top astrophysicist she would need access to advanced instruments, techniques and skills that the local Canterlot Observatory, however homely and welcoming, could not provide. The Hoofstonian Complex had not just laboratories, a complete robo-manufactorium and a huge biological research centre, but also its own radiotelescopes, massive sculpted dishes pointed to the heavens that could be guided (under careful direction) by students, giving them the skills both to operate such complex machinery and also to then interpret the results of what they found beyond the stars. "Our estimated flight time today is one hour and six minutes. Local weather in Hoofston is thirty-six degrees, humidity of 80% and clear skies. On behalf of myself, my co-pilot and all of us here at Royal Equestrian Spacelines, we thank you for flying with us. Please sit back and enjoy the flight. Cabin crew to departure positions. Thank you." The three Pegasi mares serving as cabin staff took their seats and strapped in. Twilight peered nervously out of the porthole-like window. The huge slab of delta-wing looked reassuringly solid enough, but she knew from her aerodynamics module that the metal was really paper-thin, the wing full of hypergolic fuel, and ten thousand mechanical, electrical and hydraulic components, any one of which could fail at any moment. Ah, but she had to overcome such worries if she was ever going to get into space and do some real astronomy! "Fillies and gentlecolts, we are about to begin our takeoff roll. Complementary joy-pills are available to you all in your armrests if you would like to skip this part of the flight," the pilot was informing them over the intercom. "Please make sure your seatbelts are securely fastened. Thank you." The spaceplane trembled, almost imperceptibly at first. Twilight trembled with it. She opened the slot on her armrest, found the pair of joy-pills provided for her, reached for them, then put them back. Courage, Twilight! You don't need an artificial escape from this. You need to endure it. Can't spend all your time in space zoned out on bliss, after all. The hefty ramjet engines, one in each wing, began to power up, adding a dull throb to the distant, faded cacophony of noise that accompanied every spaceplane flight. The sound-padding in the fuselage kept most of the noise at bay, but could not disguise the sensations, the raw feelings, the emotions. The ailerons moved seemingly without command, though Twilight knew it was the flight deck testing their control surfaces before they took to the air. The engines rose in pitch, a shrill hiss, a roar, a deep thrumming, some kind of cycling going on, a test perhaps, or fuel pumps, or something, certainly. What amazed her most was that they made so much noise despite not actually being able to produce any thrust just yet. "Standby for takeoff in five, four, three, two one..." Twilight reflexively gripped the armrests, ignoring the pills. She would ride this one alone. The mag-channel had built up enough power to launch the spaceplane, and with a thud and a judder they began moving, sprinting down the magnetic catapult, shaking like one of the cabaret dancers she had watched with Rarity as a send-off for her trip. Oh, they were moving now! The Orbiport raced by her window, the sleek glass terminals, the delta-winged spaceplanes, the transfer elevators, the blinking anti-collision lights of the other launch-channels, one pointing in each cardinal compass direction. Beyond that she could vaguely see the blurry outline of the twin landing strips, where incoming spaceplanes would touch down and taxi back to the terminal before being loaded via transfer elevator onto the mag-channel for their next journey. Oh Sun, here comes the rollercoaster... At the end of the mag-channel, the spaceplane began to rise, the track ahead curving into the sky, gradually at first and then at what seemed to be an almost vertical angle, but was really only about forty-five degrees. There was a thunk as the spaceplane disconnected itself from the large tray-like launch sled upon which it sat. The sled was rapidly decelerated, while the spaceplane hurled itself like a javelin into the azure sky at five hundred miles per hour. The vibration and shaking stopped- though only for a second or two. Then the ramjets roared and blazed into fiery life, for only now did they have sufficient airflow through them to actually be switched into operational mode and start providing thrust. That drove the spaceplane through the sound barrier, a silent penetration of one of the fundamental and immutable laws of physics, for they were now outrunning their own cacophony. Down below, Twilight imagined, was her apartment megabuilding. Oh, but there was at least some adrenaline to accompany the flight! It was a comfortable seat and a luxurious cabin for such a cramped fuselage, but it had a visceral edge, something one never felt in a VTOL pod or a maglev monorail or even in the local gyrodynes that carried ponies between nearby cities. No, this was different. Though there were a thousand other citizens casually taking the same flight with her, Twilight felt like something of a pioneer. A foolish thought, for it was not even her own first flight of the year, let alone ponykind's first in all history, but it gave her a small thrill as she was pressed firmly back into her seat by the continued acceleration. Up they went, the city disappearing in their wake, the clouds receding below like a foal's safety blanket being snatched from their grasp. Twice the speed of sound, three times, four, and then the ramjets began to fail in their task of providing enough thrust to keep the craft accelerating. With a sudden jolt and an even stronger invisible hand shoving the passengers back into their seats, the scramjet fitted into the underside of the fuselage ignited, kicking them on still farther, still faster, still higher. A far more efficient design and the only realistic way of conducting suborbital hypersonic travel, the scramjet compressed the incoming airflow while it was still at supersonic speed, instead of slowing it down first like other jet engines did. A steady stream of hydrogen-based fuel provided the source for ignition, and the resulting exhaust spewing from the rear of the engine was also traveling faster than sound; many times faster, once the spaceplane reached its cruising height, for the faster they went, the faster the air was traveling as it was sucked into the vast maw of the scramjet, and the faster the exhaust was traveling when it came out the back, which pushed them faster, which meant the air through the engine was moving faster, which meant... They blazed a trail into the heavens, gaining speed and altitude while the passengers inside sat in relative comfort, friends and loved ones able to conduct casual conversations with ease, unaware thanks to ignorance or joy-pills that the blunt nose of the spaceplane and the leading edges of its stubby delta wings were glowing practically white hot, the thermal protection system and its zirconium diboride ceramic skin being tested by the sheer temperature created just by driving the spaceplane through the air at such speeds, not too far removed from what their smaller but orbit-capable cousins, the Space-Ferries, had to suffer through upon re-entry after visiting one of the orbital stations. At the cruise, at an altitude of two-hundred thousand feet and a speed many times that of sound, the cabin lights were dimmed so that the passengers could get a clear view of the planet they had almost left behind. "Fillies and gentlecolts, we have momentarily dimmed the cabin lights for your pleasure," the captain informed the passengers. "We are now at our cruising altitude of two hundred thousand feet, traveling at twelve thousand one hundred miles per hour. For those of you on the right side of the aircraft, you should have a fine view of the Northern Reaches, including the Manehattan Peninsula and the northern Degenerate Zone. For those of you on the left side of the aircraft, you will be able to see most of the main continent, including the entire Foal Mountain chain, the cities of Zebrica and Fillydelphia, the Everfree Degenerate Zone, and the Southern Islands." Calmed by the fact they had arrived successfully at the edge of space, Twilight looked out from her window. The curve of the planet could be clearly seen, dropping away to infinity and the vast, empty lacuna of outer space that lay beyond. The sun, a brilliant, impossibly bright ball of fire, was dimmed to a vaguely tolerable glow by the automatic polarisation filters of the window, but Twilight was more interested by the Co-Orbital Body. Alas, she could not see it. Not when the sun was in her eyes. Besides, it was probably on the other side of the plane, and she had the whole rich tapestry of Equestria unfolded before her, exactly like the world map she kept hanging on the wall of her lounge. How wonderful it was! For a moment, blasphemous as it may be to think it, for a moment, she was a goddess, looking down upon the whole world. This view! Not even the Princess had a view like this. Which Princess? Twilight gripped the armrests again. What kind of a question was that to ask herself? There was only one Princess! Foolish girl. Keep such thoughts very much to yourself! Which Princess, indeed. The Sun Rises, The Sun Never Sets. She knew she was not in any trouble, any danger. If her name had been somehow linked to the search from the public data terminal, she would not have been allowed on the flight. Orbiport security would have taken her aside until the brave and dedicated ponies of the ASU, the Anti-Subversives Unit, could have arrived to interrogate her. To take her away for, she imagined, necessary reconditioning before she was allowed to return to her work and study. A recuperation programme, to reflect on her transgressions and understand where she had strayed from the path. She had seen it done before; a couple of fellow students who were exposed to some mildly radical ideas. Taken away for a week and returned with bright smiles and no small amount of regret for their foolish actions, a greater understanding of the importance of following the path and the light of the Sun imprinted upon their brains. No worse for wear, no harm done! Even so, Twilight had no desire to be carted off from her classes at all. Besides, she wasn't even a subversive anyway! I'm really not! Not at all. I praise the Sun, I follow the law! Apart from with her talking pet. She had been forced to leave Spike behind as the spaceplane could not accommodate pets, not could her guest room in Hoofston. That meant leaving him with Rarity, but she wasn't too concerned. Spike was good, behaved himself well. Rarity had expressed a worry that he might not get on very well with her cat, Opalescence, but Twilight assured her that she had a funny feeling it would be alright. After she had spoken to Rarity on the vid-phone, she had impressed upon Spike that he absolutely must be on his best behaviour while she was away. He nodded and told her he understood, that Rarity was her friend, and sometimes her bedroom-friend, which made Twilight blush furiously. It was only for a few days, anyway, and then she would be back home with him, back home in her familiar apartment, her comfortable surroundings, with her friends and bedroom-friends and joy-pills and cabarets and the observatory, too. Oh, how she longed to go back there, to the archives! There was so much more to see, to learn. She had to. She simply had to learn more. Moon. Princess Luna. There had to be an explanation. It couldn't just be explained away. The letters, the police, the data error when searching...no, there was definitely something happening. Definitely something. Twilight pondered what that might be, and before she even knew it they were descending into Hoofston's Orbiport, gliding down onto the long concrete strip. Twenty minutes later she was in her room, and an hour after that she was undergoing her brief orientation tour of the physics department of the Hoofstonian Scientific Complex. What a wondrous place it was! Shiny and new, bright and clean, just like life ought to be. No dust in their archive room, she supposed. But perhaps no true history, either. The building was new, but even the Complex as a whole, though prestigious, had only been formed a century ago. No true ancient ties, nothing dating from before the Great Unification War. No pedigree except that which had been thrust upon it by the fact that it held a Royal Charter from the hand of the Princess herself. Impressive, of course, but so what? So did the Canterlot Royal University, and that even had Royal in its name. One-up on the Hoofstonian, hmph! What the Hoofstonian had was the radio-telescopes that there had simply not been room for in Canterlot. By the time the science and technology had reached the point where they could be built, there was no room left up in the Old City on the mountain, where the original university had been. The rapid expansion of the New City had swallowed up much of the available land and the city lights were a blight on optical astronomy which had precluded the expansion of the old observatory much beyond its original size and form. But what had killed the idea of radio-astronomy in Canterlot completely was the same thing that powered it- simple physics. A valley was the worst possible place for any kind of telemetry or tracking station, and the same went for telescopes, because the mountains on either side cut off huge amounts of the sky from view and blocked the propagation of radio waves, laser beams and anything else astronomers might wish to throw skyward. Building atop the mountain peaks would have been the logical solution, but alas they were far too spindly and unstable to allow any kind of major construction project, certainly nothing of the scale required from a radio telescope array. So they had brought it to the desert instead. Hoofston lay on a vast, arid expanse of sand and agave, with very little else to be seen anywhere around. The whole city was suitably climate-controlled, of course, but the dry air and flat terrain was perfect for astronomy. Twilight was delighted with the tour and the equipment, and the accommodating staff, all more than happy to help a student from a fellow top university. She retired to bed that Even-Day happy, momentarily distracted from her other thoughts. The same happened the following Even-Day, and the Even-Day after that. Then she was awoken at some Sun-forsaken hour by the trilling of her room's vid-phone. She stumbled from the bed and rubbed her sleep-bleary eyes, not remembering she was naked until she had already answered the call. Luckily, it was only Rarity. "Darling! Oh...bad time?" "Huh? Yeah, it's like...three in the morning here..." Twilight yawned. "Oh...so it is. I forgot the time difference...but, do you have company, or...?" "What? No..." Twilight looked down at herself with a momentary blush. "Ah, you just got me out of bed, that's all...so, uh...why?" "I...well, I'm not sure exactly how to..." Rarity mused, tapping her chin. "You see...it's about Spike." "Oh?" Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Oh no, he didn't break one of your vases, did he...?" "No, no," Rarity shook her head. "No, he, um...you see, he...spoke." Twilight blinked a few times before replying slowly. "He...spoke...?" "Yes! I'm sure he did. I'm not going mad, am I? Do please tell me I haven't taken too many joy-pills..." Rarity implored. "I'm sure he did. He definitely did!" "What, uh...what did he say?" Twilight questioned, that uneasy feeling returning once more, spreading through her body like the intoxicating effect of a joy-pill but in reverse. "Well, you see, I was giving him some breakfast. Eggs, like you said. And while my back was turned he tried to take one from my plate! So naturally I gave him a cuff round the ear. Naughty dragon, bad boy! You know...and, well...he said 'Twilight never hits me...' I'm certain he did...!" "Not...maybe...from a vid-phone? Or the television? Maybe someone outside in the hall?" Twilight ventured, equal parts hopeful and forlorn. "Absolutely not! I didn't have the television on, I haven't vid-called anyone since yesterday morning...no, darling, he definitely spoke! I'm positive!" "Ohhh...." Twilight groaned. "Oh, Sun..." "Darling? Have you done something you perhaps shouldn't have done...?" Rarity suggested tactfully. "Oh Rarity, I'm so sorry!" she blurted out. "I'm sorry! Oh Sun, please don't tell! Don't tell anypony about this! Please!" she begged. "I won't, darling. But I think you'd better get back here as soon as you can," Rarity replied. "I mean...I am house-sitting your, uh...well, he's not exactly a pet anymore, is he?" "No...no, I suppose he's not..." Twilight sighed. "Look, I'll tell you everything, ok? But when I get back. Not now. Not over this link. Make sure you expunge your vid-phone record after we end this call, Rarity. Just in case." "Yes...yes, alright." Rarity nodded. "You'll be home tomorrow though, won't you?" "I will. Just this one last day here in Hoofston and I fly back tomorrow morning," she replied. "Is he there with you? Can you bring him to the phone?" "Just a moment..." Rarity disappeared from the screen and then Spike appeared, lifted onto the chair by her hands. He waved his claw. "Hello Spike," she forced a smile, easier than she thought once she saw his face. "Now listen to me. You can speak to Rarity, alright? As long as she gives you permission to talk. But you must still never, ever talk when anypony else is there. Only me or Rarity. Do you understand?" "Yes mommy Twilight," Spike nodded. "I miss you." "I miss you too..." she replied. "Rarity? Thank you." "It's alright, darling. I'll see you tomorrow and we can sort all this out," Rarity blew her a kiss before signing off. Twilight pressed the delete message button, erasing the call. Just in case. Just in case.